Hi Tony, you are absolutely right – all my focus is on trying to build the first car.

What I am doing, if I need tooling to make a part for the first car, is making sure that it is to the right standard to produce additional components if required. This is a hobby, and not a business, so I don't need to work out how many cars need to be produced to recover the investment. As I plan to write off all my time and all tooling costs I know now that it will never be recovered.

I only have a double garage, and half of that is used for benches and racking, so it would be physically impossible to try and make the moulds myself at home. If you use a professional company they only know how to produce production standard moulds, so that is what I will have, even if only one car is ever built.

With the chassis, I simply don't have the skills required to make it myself. Originally I hoped that I could get Keith to produce the chassis, but his levels of energy are reducing and it was too much for him to take on. He is still in the background supporting and guiding, which is brilliant. I have selected Caged as I believe they are the best company for the work - have a close look at the quality of a BAC Mono which they do all the chassis work for. The advantage of cutting all the tubes with a laser, which can go around the tube and constantly adjust the angle of cut, is fantastic. I will mainly use round tubes, and, as an example, just before the front engine mount (using the 12mm plate) five tubes come together forming a key point of a perfect triangulated structure that significantly adds to the overall torsional stiffness. You might attempt a similar design cutting square tubes by hand, but would be virtually impossible using round tube. As all the cuts are so accurate the tubes virtually fall into position, so the tooling consists of simple position guides.

I know that Mark is using a 3D printer to test designs, and Matt is doing the same – last week he printed out (in two halves that clip together) the 12 mm engine plate. It is so powerful to be able to actually see what is going to be produced from the digital files. It is also possible to 3D print wax, so items that would be impossible with conventional sand casting become possible with lost wax casting.

I was really impressed by TTV Racing on a recent visit, so I will be asking them to do the majority of the machining work. For example, the engine position is set by where I wanted it to be, rather than by the length of the Fiat driveshafts, so TTV will produce driveshafts to my specific requirement.

I know that I'm working to a bonkers level, but I'm loving the journey and if all the ideas come together and actual work that will be a fantastic bonus. The idea of two or three of my cars being on the grid together is just a dream at this stage.

Andy Middlehurst is going to be the driver for Lotus 33/R11, so once the 750 is built I will invite him to test it, and hopefully give it its first race. If Mick is still building his new car by the time I'm finished, it would great to have him give the car a race. If the car has won a race, maybe I will have a go to try and get better than eight – my best result in the first car.

Well today the buck went to Custom Mouldings to have the moulds and first full set of body panels made. It seems very strange, I started building the table, and on it an MDF version of the monocoque, in June 2013. Then making the plugs for the sidepods just seemed take forever (October 2013 – November 2016), so 22 months for the main body plug does not feel so bad, as there were quite a few signicant changes made during the process. So strange, all that work, and, after the moulds are made, it just goes in the skip.

While there has been many hours of hard work, I have loved the process of creating what a friend of mine has called, "high speed sculpture".

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Plug about to leave home

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Andy of Custom Mouldings starting to think where he will put the split ilnes

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The plug almost filled half my garage, and looks quite small in the factory

A week after delivering the buck my Father died, so thoughts of the 750 where put on hold. Custom Moulds have been making progress, and the main moulds for the rear bodywork are starting to look good.

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While sitting in the grandstand at Snetterton someone (sorry I did not catch the name) came and said, "are you Emlyn, I remember your first 750", he then went on to say he was enjoying my posts (so I have one fan). We talked about my plans, and he said he was thinking about building a 750, but would want it to be a space frame.

So, having had time away from the project, I went up to Caged on Monday, and we are going to develop a tubular version of the chassis first. It makes sense from their point of view – it is what they are expert at, and I think it will also be a much more acceptable route for anyone interested in having a kit. So hopefully early in the new year I will have a prototype frame to then fix all the brackets and mounting points, and I should also have the first set of bodywork. I know I'm taking a long time, but slowly things are starting to come together. The target is a running car towards the end of next year, and to be ready to race in 2020.

I trust everyone had an excellent Christmas, and will have a happy New Year.

I have been forced by family duties to do less on the 750 over the last three months, but I'm looking forward to a fresh start in 2019. The irony was that while I was doing less myself, because of the work on the moulds, October and November where the most expense months ever for the project. Total expenditure in 2018 was more than double the highest figure in any previous year – but I'm certain that 2019 will be higher!

Custom Mouldings had a rush job in December, so it was agreed to leave the moulds on the plug until now, so my main present will get unwrapped in the next week or so. I was not upset by the delay as it will have given the moulds more time to cure, which can never be a bad thing. I'm not sure how long it will take them to sort the return moulds, but hopefully around the end of February I will be posting photos of the first set of golden yellow bodywork. I won't know the cost for extra sets of bodywork will be until the first set has been made. At the moment I'm working on a time and materials basis, with just a rough idea of the final bill.

Emlyn

ps I don't want to be around when years of work on the plug is broken up and put in the skip, but once the moulds are made it is totally redundant.

Today I went to see progress at Custom Mouldings. They are still focussing on another rush project, but they had had time to remove the two front moulds.

There is still a great deal of work required detailing and polishing the moulds, but I have to admit that I'm really excited by progress.

The thing that I found most interesting, and pleasing, was the quality of the flat surfaces. With conventional resin you often end up with a gentle undulation, and that of course transfers to the actually body panels. They use a special tooling material (sorry I don't know the name) and the result is the flat surfaces are just that - flat – I was really impressed.

The rest of the mould are due off at the beginning of next week. They understand exactly what is required with the return on the front of the engine cover that needs to come down and fit across the top of the chassis and fit over the internal shape of the side pods. Exactly how it will actually be achieved is causing some scratching of heads at the moment, but I have every confidence that they will sort it.